


Meddling

by Haely_Potter



Series: Bending the Universe [5]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Episode AU: s04e08-09 Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, F/M, Gen, Timey-Wimey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-26
Updated: 2013-09-26
Packaged: 2017-12-27 16:26:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/981093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haely_Potter/pseuds/Haely_Potter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor uses River to manipulate the timelines.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meddling

"River," the Doctor says one evening, laying in bed, holding his wife. "When I meet you for the first time, I will be in a regeneration that isn't able to love you and will run for the hills should you even imply what we are. You can't use my name as proof, he will think the worst of you if you do. Rather, tell him "Bad Wolf." He may still be wary of you, but he'll believe you when you say you're a friend."

"What do you mean?" asks River, looking up at him, hurt shining in her eyes. "Not able to love me?"

"That me was made to love another, was made for her, really, and he isn't capable of being attracted to another. He may be able to flirt and even kiss others, but anything resembling a romantic partnership with someone else is unthinkable to him."

The Doctor knows this to be true, knows that even now, holding his wife, his hearts yearn for another, for a yellow and pink girl. This gamble he's taking with the timelines is a dangerous one but the golden, potential happiness of that alternate timeline is too alluring for the Doctor to resist. Even if he'd only have Rose for sixty, seventy more years, maybe one hundred of he lets her visit the more medically advanced time periods where humans live longer, it'll still be worth it.

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

"Oh, for heaven's sake!" Mr. Lux cries. "Look at the pair of you! We're all gonna die right here, and you're just squabbling like an old married couple!"

River sees the instant the words register in the Doctor's mind because of the terror she sees in his brown (not gentle, sad green that look at her with warmth and want) eyes that are now wide with disbelief. And she remembers what her Doctor had said, not two weeks earlier about this him. Sadly, she now knows him to be right. Should she try, he'd fight it the whole way. And… maybe this was why he'd always been so confused and startled by her flirting in the beginning.

She makes up her mind.

"Doctor… one day I'm going to be someone that you trust completely, but I can't wait for you to find that out. So I'm going to prove it to you. And I'm sorry. I'm really very sorry." She leans closer to him and lowers her voice as she whispers "Bad Wolf" to him.

The change is immediate. Hope, joy, confusion and fear swirl in his eyes, like he doesn't know what exactly to make of her message. "Why those words?" he whispers back, voice hoarse.

"The future you said they would convince you," River answers, also confused by the power those words has over him. When he'd first told her Bad Wolf, he'd sounded nearly reverent. Had he been religious, she'd have thought he was talking of a deity of some sort but she knew the Doctor wasn't religious or spiritual. He believed in cold logic and hard facts, not some higher power.

"Oh, they do," the Doctor gushes, manic energy returning tenfold and grin wider than she's ever seen. "Could it…? No… Yes! No… Oh, yes! This is brilliant! Molto bene! Fantastic, even! Big trouble on the horizon! But, let's sort the Vashta Nerada first. I have to get Donna back, I promised her grandfather!" And he skips to her team.

Suddenly her memories are twisting and changing to include a blond woman, Rose Tyler, the Doctor's wife in a way she isn't, hasn't been, never was… wasn't supposed to? In more than name only anyway. She now remembers the way he looks at his Rose like she made the universe turn and suns burn. She remembers Daleks being nearly as afraid of Rose as they are of the Doctor, mostly in relation to her name, Bad Wolf, and she now understands what she has given him when she told him Bad Wolf instead of his name as she'd originally intended. But… she couldn't have known his name, could she? She wasn't his wife, Rose was.

A fading timeline and faster fading memories say otherwise but… She examines the way the Doctor acted with her and acted with Rose and knows he was happier, so much happier with Rose, that she can't regret her actions.

She is Professor River Song, mysterious, time traveling archeologist, and Melody Pond, the goddaughter of the Doctor and Rose Tyler. She is Mels, her parents' best friend and the psychopath that attempted to kill the Doctor, and for all intents and purposes she had. But her clever uncle Doctor had figured a way out, he always did, and even while in prison for a murder she didn't commit, she really couldn't have been happier.

So, when she uses her own mind for a clean download of the 4022 people trapped in the computer, she knows she does the right thing, letting her uncle Doctor and his Rose continue running around the universe.


End file.
